The Feeling of Powerlessness Against Fate and the Illusion of Miscegenation in James Fenimore Cooper’S Novel “The Last of Mohicans” Dr

International Research Journal of Interdisciplinary & Multidisciplinary Studies (IRJIMS) A Peer-Reviewed Monthly Research Journal ISSN: 2394-7969 (Online), ISSN: 2394-7950 (Print) Volume-II, Issue-VII, August 2016, Page No. 45-54 Published by: Scholar Publications, Karimganj, Assam, India, 788711 Website: http://www.irjims.com The Feeling of Powerlessness against Fate and the Illusion of Miscegenation in James Fenimore Cooper’s Novel “The Last of Mohicans” Dr. Thamarai Selvi Lecturer, Language and Literature, University of Goroka, Papua New Guinea Abstract The Last of the Mohicans, was widely considered Cooper’s best work, was an implausible story narrated in a fashion that could seem overwrought to modern readers. Cooper’s work remained important for its portrait of frontier life and its exploration of the traumatic encounters between races and cultures poised on opposite sides of a shrinking frontier. Written in 1826, The Last of the Mohicans took place in 1757 during the French and Indian War, when France and England battled for control of the American and Canadian colonies. During this war, the French often allied themselves with Native American tribes in order to gain an advantage over the English, with unpredictable and often tragic results. Descriptions of certain incidents, such as the massacre of the English soldiers by Huron Indians, embellish accounts of real historical events. Additionally, certain characters in the novel, General Montcalm in particular, were based on real individuals. Creating historically inspired stories was common in nineteenth-century adventure tales. The Mohicans were the possessors of the country first occupied by the Europeans in this portion of the continent. They were, consequently, the first dispossessed; and the seemingly inevitable fate of all these people, who disappeared before the advances, or it might be termed the inroads, of civilization, as the verdure of their native forests fell before the nipping frosts, was represented as having already befallen them. There was sufficient historical truth in the picture to justify the use that had been made of it. Key Words: Allies, encounters, devoted, ruthless, cunning, diversity, modest. Introduction: It was believed that the scene of this tale, and most of the information necessary to understand its allusions, were rendered sufficiently obvious to the reader in the text itself, or in the accompanying notes. Few men exhibited greater diversity, or, if we may so express it, greater antithesis of character, than the native warriors of North America. In war, the Mohican was daring, boastful, cunning, ruthless, self-denying, and self-devoted; in peace, just, generous, hospitable, revengeful, superstitious, modest, and commonly chaste. These were qualities, it was true, which did not distinguish all alike; but they were so far the Volume-II, Issue-VII August 2016 45 The Feeling of Powerlessness against Fate and the Illusion of Miscegenation in James Thamarai Selvi predominating traits of these remarkable people had to be characteristic. It was generally believed that the Aborigines of the American continent had an Asiatic origin. There were many physical as well as moral facts which corroborated this opinion, and some few that would seem to weigh against it. The color of the Indian, the writer believed, was peculiar to himself, and while his cheek-bones had a very striking indication of a Tartar origin, his eyes did not. Climate might have had great influence on the former, but it was difficult to see how it could have produced the substantial difference which existed in the latter. The imagery of the Indian, both in his poetry and in his oratory, was oriental; chastened, and perhaps improved, by the limited range of his practical knowledge. He drew his metaphors from the clouds, the seasons, the birds, the beasts, and the vegetable world. In this, perhaps, he did no more than any other energetic and imaginative race would do, being compelled to set bounds to fancy by experience; but the North American Indian clothes, a dress which was different from that of the African, and was oriental in it. His language had the richness and sententious fullness of the Chinese. He would express a phrase in a word, and he would qualify the meaning of an entire sentence by a syllable; he would even convey different significations by the simplest inflections of the voice. Philologists had said that there were two or three languages, properly speaking, among all the numerous tribes which formerly occupied the country that now comprised the United States. They ascribed the known difficulty when people had to understand another to corruption and dialect. The writer remembered that he had to be present at an interview between two chiefs of the Great Prairies west of the Mississippi, and an interpreter was also present who spoke both their languages. The warriors appeared to be on the friendliest terms, and seemingly conversed much together; yet, according to the account of the interpreter, each were absolutely ignorant of what the other had said. They were of hostile tribes, brought together by the influence of the American government; and it was worthy of remark, that a common policy led them both to adopt the same subject. They mutually exhorted each other to be of use in the event of the chances of war throwing either of the parties into the hands of their enemies. Whatever may be the truth, as respected the root and the genius of the Indian tongues, it was quite certain they were now as distinct in their words as to possess most of the disadvantages of strange languages; hence much of the embarrassment had arisen in learning their histories, and most of the uncertainty which existed in their traditions. Like nations of higher pretensions, the American Indian gave a very different account of his own tribe or race from what was given by other people. He was much addicted to overestimated his own perfections, and undervalued his rival or his enemy; a trait which might possibly be thought corroborative of the Mosaic account of the creation. The whites had assisted greatly in rendering the traditions of the Aborigines more obscure by their own manner of corrupting names. Thus, the term used in the title of this book had undergone the changes of Mahicanni, Mohicans, and Mohegans; the latter being the word commonly used by the whites. When it was remembered that the Dutch, the Volume-II, Issue-VII August 2016 46 The Feeling of Powerlessness against Fate and the Illusion of Miscegenation in James Thamarai Selvi English, and the French, all gave appellations to the tribes that dwelt within the country was the scene of this story, and that the Indians not only gave different names to their enemies, but frequently to them, the cause of the confusion would be understood. In the book, Lenni-Lenape, Lenope, Delawares, Wapanachki, and Mohicans, all meant the same people, or tribes of the same stock. The Mengwe, the Maquas, the Mingoes, and the Iroquois, though not all strictly the same, were identified frequently by the speakers, being politically confederated and opposed to those just named. Mingo was a term of peculiar reproach, as were Mengwe and Maqua in a lesser degree. In fact, the country which was the scene of the following tale had undergone as little change, since the historical events alluded to had place, as almost any other district of equal extent within the whole limits of the United States. There were well-attended watering- places at and near the spring where Hawkeye halted to drink, and roads traversed the forests where he and his friends were compelled to journey without even a path. Glen's had a large village; and while William Henry, and even a fortress of later date, was only to be traced as ruins, there was another village on the shores of the Horican.. The whole of that wilderness, in which the latter incidents of the legend occurred, was nearly a wilderness still, though the red man had entirely deserted this part of the state. Of all the tribes named in these pages, there existed only a few half-civilized beings of the Oneidas, on the reservations of their people in New York. The rest had disappeared, either from the regions in which their fathers dwelt, or altogether from the earth. Hawkeye called the Lac du Saint Sacrement, the "Horican." As we believed this to be an appropriation of the name that had its origin with ourselves, the time had arrived, perhaps, when the fact could be frankly admitted. Looking over an ancient map, it was ascertained that a tribe of Indians, called "Les Horicans" by the French, existed in the neighborhood of this beautiful sheet of water. The name had appeared to find favor, and all things considered, it might possibly be quite as well to let it stand, instead of going back to the House of Hanover for the appellation of our finest sheet of water. We believed our conscience by the confession, at all events leaving it to exercise its authority as it might seem fit. Literature Review: It was the late 1750s, and the French and Indian War gripped the wild forest frontier of western New York. The French army attacked Fort William Henry, a British outpost commanded by Colonel Munro. Munro’s daughters Alice and Cora had set out from Fort Edward to visit their father, escorted through the dangerous forest by Major Duncan Heyward and guided by an Indian named Magua. Soon they were joined by David Gamut, a singing master and a religious follower of Calvinism. Travelling cautiously, the group encountered the white scout Natty Bumppo, who went by the name Hawkeye, and his two Indian companions, Chingachgook and Uncas, Chingachgook’s son, the only surviving member of the once great Mohican tribe.

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